It's completely unreasonable for a newbie to be taking photographs that good. It's not fair....

Seriously, I don't think this needs any PP, it looks fine. You could boost the contrast a bit but I think that would spoil the 'soft' look of the shot..

PS Elements comes with a reasonable 'help' facility. 'Auto levels' does a pretty good job often; if you don't like the result you can lighten / darken the pic or increase / contrast or colour casts using the sliders. You can cehck the histogram under 'levels' to make sure you have a good balance of light and dark tones in the picture. Colour can be set correctly using the one-click facility on a neutral (white or grey) part of the picture. The controls for highlight / shadow detail are very useful too. It's quite intuitive and there's no substitute for playing with it and seeing the effects..

Congratulations on your beautiful pic, and good luck...Mike..

Beth wrote:.

Hi there,Newbie and really trying to learn to use my Cannon S5 I am not surewhat all the post processing is about I do have photoshop elements 5and do not know how to use it very well. Any suggestions would begood on this photo.http://www.pbase.com/marbet/image/83932582.

Yes, you do need post processing... .

A really good photographer will be able to capture what they see. But even they can make mistakes. And even when they Don't make mistakes, the DR (dynamic range) of the camera cannot match the DR of your eyes. In addition, Cropping the image is also part of PP..

All that being said, the program you already have is more than good enough. I own and use Photoshop and Rarely use more than five percent of the program..

Basically the following are the important parts of Post Processing:.

ExposureCroppingAdjusting contrast and brightnessAdjusting shadow and highlightsSharpening or noise removalColor correctionCorrrecting for an unlevel horizon (if desired).

And a few more.

Elements can do all of these things and more..

Dave..

OK I'll try again by copy and pasting the URL and adding .jpg to the end..

You can see how it will show up by using the preview button at the bottom of this text box....then you have the option of 'edit' or 'post' if it's all right..

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A great place to learn about retouching is the Retouching Forum....way down at the bottom of the list of discussion forums..

I would also resize my photos before uploading to pbase....or you'll use up your allotted space very quickly....I had to show the medium size because the original and the large came out enormous. I usually resize to 800 on the long side. And be sure to save it by using 'save as' and adding something like r8 to the file name. This way you keep your original untouched. You always want to keep your original 'as is'. You'll notice on pbase that if you try to view the 'original' version it is huge..

Here's a picture resized to 800 on the long size so you can see how nicely that size shows up....

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Good luck....LucyU ZI owner!Olympus C30-20Zhttp://www.pbase.com/lucyFCAS Member #98, Oly Division'Photography is the art of seeing what others do not.'.

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Quick easy post processing steps with Elements 2.0 & other sw without using layers.For those new to digital.

Post Processing - without Layersfor "Keepers" - for highest quality.

File > open jpeg.

"save as" uncompressed tiff.

Crop.

Resize - image size.

Enhanse (your numbers may vary)Brightness +5Contrast -5adjust color Saturation +5.

Filter - sharpen - unsharp mask 125 - 0.5 - 1the 125 amount is variable.

"save as" uncompressed tiff with NEW FILE NAMEmakes new file & prevents overwriting & changing your original.

"Save as" #12 jpeg same new file namesome sw uses 10, some 100 as highest quality jpeg.

Why save as tiff....

I developed the practice from the raw workflow from the Raw vs Jpeg article on Luminous Landscape. Raw converted to tiff .....I figured Jpeg converted to tiff gives me a permenant loseless file as my original negative that I keep for future possible use....yes, the workflow is definately usable without the tiff conversion but I personally like to keep my unaltered original as an uncompressed tiff. Of course this is for "keepers" only...Bill,JrFor snap shots and such I would not do the save as tiff step..

Bill,Jr.

'I kind of like the Earth, it's where I keep all my Stuff.'Website; http://www.pbase.com/wboth125 Lake Wylie, SC..

That is a great image and IMO doesn't need anything. But this is all subjective, try playing with the PP if you like. The nice thing about digital is tha ability to create different versions without incurring extra expense and mess..

But that pic looks great teh way it is!.

James.

Beth wrote:.

Hi there,Newbie and really trying to learn to use my Cannon S5 I am not surewhat all the post processing is about I do have photoshop elements 5and do not know how to use it very well. Any suggestions would begood on this photo.http://www.pbase.com/marbet/image/83932582..

I seem to be the only person who looked at the other pictures in that collection aside from the frist one that comes up. I think the original post must be referring to not the first one but the ones that have obvious glaring problems: big horizontal bands of some of the images are displaced to the right or left and/or are in a different color scheme from the rest of the same image..

Those problems might be fixable with an image editing program, but, unless they were created by misuse of such a program in the first place, they must come from a malfunction in the camera or in how the operating system copied the files from it to a disk in the computer. Editing for issues like those shouldn't be an issue at all; pictures from ANY camera just aren't supposed to look like that, with or without editing...

I seem to be the only person who looked at the other pictures in thatcollection aside from the frist one that comes up. I think theoriginal post must be referring to not the first one but the onesthat have obvious glaring problems: big horizontal bands of some ofthe images are displaced to the right or left and/or are in adifferent color scheme from the rest of the same image..

Those problems might be fixable with an image editing program, but,unless they were created by misuse of such a program in the firstplace, they must come from a malfunction in the camera or in how theoperating system copied the files from it to a disk in the computer.Editing for issues like those shouldn't be an issue at all; picturesfrom ANY camera just aren't supposed to look like that, with orwithout editing..

Absolutely right - I looked only at the first pic (which is the best IMO!)..

There does appear to be some technical fault associated with some of the pix, either due to the camera or something that went wrong in the conversion to B&W. Some of the pix are clearly blurred because the camera used a long shutter speed in poor light - nothing you can do about those..

For some of the others, a littl PP-ing in photoshop elements or somthing similar will make a big improvement. I have taken the liberty of playing with one example in which the faces were underexposed (too dark) because the bright window in the background fooled the camera into a giving a too-short exposure:.

Before....

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After some tweaking of brightness and contrast....

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This was just 20 seconds work but it gives you an idea I hope.Best wishesMike..

Some women need more makeup than others.Some photographs need post processing, some don't.As fr as I can tell, there is no rule, all depends on the result you want...

I could not see the picture that you fixed or tweaked and I would love to see what you did, the only photo there is the original one.Thanks For your helpBeth..

Do I have to save the photo in Tiff, what would be the easiest way that is not too complicated, I am not familiar with Tiff files, only JPG, I know, I have a lot to learn.Thanks for your helpBeth..

...I choise this pic (no 810 I think) as it was clearly a bit underexposed..

Before.

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After.

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An expert could do a lot better... all I did was (1) click on 'auto smart fix' which brightened the picture, especially the underexposed face/hair of the baby, and (2) selected the baby's face and brightened the shadows and increased the contrast a little more on that part only (two simple sliders to adjust)..

You can download a trial version of PS elements free (for 30 days) from the Adobe website..

Best wishesMike..

... the workflow is definately usable without the tiff conversion but I personally like to keep my unaltered original as an uncompressed tiff. Of course this is for "keepers" only...Bill,Jr.

For snap shots and such I would not do the save as tiff step..

Bill,Jr'I kind of like the Earth, it's where I keep all my Stuff.'Website; http://www.pbase.com/wboth125 Lake Wylie, SC..

Oh my gosh, I love what you did, I am going to play around with some other photos, thanks for all the instructions.Beth..

I think the photo itself is an excellent shot..

In terms of post processing, that's a very subjective thing. Personally, I would up the contrast a little bit. Try it and see if you like the effect..

Overall however, it looks like you where using the camera indoors, without flash (available light), at ISO 200. I'm not sure you selected this on purpose, but I certainly would try to avoid the flash with newborns. Have you tried to increase the ISO to 400 or 800, to get faster shutter speeds to avoid the blurs?.

Using a higher ISO will introduce more noise, but lots of people won't be able to tell the difference, especially if your printing at something like 4x6 or 5x7..

Everything I write is a personal opinion. Even when I quote facts, they are the facts I personally choose to accept.http://www.pbase.com/mariog..

Thanks for your advce, I do not like using the flash much I like the natural light we were in front of the window for that shot, however when I had the camera in Auto mode it went to ISO 800 which I thought was extremly high, I wonder why this is as taking it down to ISO 200 I was still able to focus and take the photo. I have a lot to learn but it's exciting when I can get a decent photo.Thanks Beth..

Do you find images at ISO 800 too noisy? It's of course a subjective thing, but I've found that even with fast lenses (like my 50mm 1.8) that upping the ISO can make a noticeable improvement in usability..

I've got a D80, and at ISO 800, with a little software noise reduction from Bibble, I find the images acceptable. Though I'll be honest and I tend to stick to ISO 200 as much as possible..

And of course, sometimes noise is desireable for certain effects and shots, like the classic grainy B&W shot..

In any case, it is an excellent shot, so you are certainly doing something right..

Everything I write is a personal opinion. Even when I quote facts, they are the facts I personally choose to accept.http://www.pbase.com/mariog..

Beth wrote:.

Hi there,Newbie and really trying to learn to use my Cannon S5 I am not surewhat all the post processing is about I do have photoshop elements 5and do not know how to use it very well. Any suggestions would begood on this photo.http://www.pbase.com/marbet/image/83932582.

No! Don't touch that pic..

I too (like the 2 other readers) looked at all your pix in that gallery. It's obvious that the one you posted was the ONLY pic that was perfect. Nothing wrong with that. You just have to figure out WHY that one was good (the answer is LIGHT)..

PSE5 is a great photo editor. It is very difficult to learn, because the people that created it are goofy geeks and don't have a clue what normal people are like. .

I would recommend that you get a book about PSE5...perhaps the Scott Kelby one? I strongly suggest you lurk over on the Retouching Forum (here on dpr). After you get a sense of how they operate, send one of your BAD pix to them (after trying to "fix" it yourself) and ask them how to improve it. They will teach you how to use PSE5! And it will be fun....

Charlie DavisNikon 5700 & Sony R1HomePage: http://www.1derful.infoBridge Blog: http://www.here-ugo.com/BridgeBlog/..